Is there a 'fully threaded' mod for the latest version of Vbulletin?

Sat 11th Jul '15, 6:44am

I've been using 'Tetra Web-BB' for my forum and would like to upgrade to Vbulletin as 'Tetra' is very old open source software. It's also the only forum software that has by default a fully threaded interface. Every topic shows the responses and also the responses to the response, etc. It's what my group is familiar with and Works better than linear or threaded forums.

I found an old modification for 3.0 but nothing newer. After contacting the staff at Vbulletin I was told I was on my own in finding a mod that allows for fully threaded discussions.

Does anyone know if there is a modification for Vbulletin that will give me a fully threaded view? The other part is I don't know code so if their is a mod to allow for that it needs to be a fairly simple mod or I need to find someone to install it for me. The team that made the enclosed mod is no longer around.

Comment

Hardly anybody used it. Development time has to be prioritised towards things people will actually use.

Threaded mode belonged in an era when people were mostly used to nntp newsgroups (which at the time were only readable in an nntp client which only used threaded mode), so it was effectively a "transitional" feature as people gradually got used to web forums.
In the modern age that's simply not applicable.

Comment

There is never going to be a threaded mode in vB5. It's an outmoded concept dating back to Usenet that simply isn't used on most web forums.

When upgrading, it is always best to do what we have recommended since vB1 - upgrade a test copy of your site first. Rushing in and deploying major upgrades to your live site without any testing, will lead to issues like this.

Comment

Ridiculous. The new upgrade is awful. The format is so drastically different and distasteful that it almost feels unusable. People used to be able to engage in meaningful conversation within a topic using the hybrid mode, now everything is all in a mashed up jumble; people like to be able to navigate to through a conversation, rather than comb through 20 pages of new posts to find the one post they wanted to read and reply to (only to be much less likely to recieve a reply in return since the other poster will have to go to the extra effort to do the same thing). What seemed like a convenience has turned out to be a necessity now that it is gone. The whole structure of the online community will have to change, and I think it will ultimately lose a lot of people, simply because we can't converse in this new format; its a chore just to have a meaningful exchange. Just plain awful.

I'm sorry your site heavily relied on this feature no longer available in VB5. However, realistically, it is a feature fewer and fewer sites used over the last five to ten years. Perhaps 1 in 100 sites even had it enabled. Most forum users were not used to it, even if yours were. There just isn't going to be enough demand for it to make restoring it a possibility. I'm not aware of any modern forum package that has this ability.

Ever consider that's one reason people kept using your product? Had something no one else had? Because several people on our community have actually said that "there are better sites, the only reason to come here is the availability of the hybrid mode".